Save the Mangroves of Kutch from Salt Making Industries

Kharai camels grazing over dying mangrove fields. Mangrove forests at Kandla (Kutch) are being systematically cleared by salt making industries.

For over a month, a large fleet of Hitachi extraction machines and tractors, illegally plundered more than 4 square kilometres of pristine mangrove forests!! Blocking creeks, levelling ground, and making bunds! They systematically created bunds enclosing small portions of land to keep tidal water from coming in, so that mangroves slowly die off, and it gets easier for their machines to uproot them. They would have destroyed the entire forest if Adambhai had not raised an alarm and brought attention to this destruction. Adambhai lives in the mangroves and has been grazing his 350 kharai camels in this beautiful ecosystem for the past eight generations. Media attention, civil society action and a National Green Tribunal (NGT) Stay Order stopped the entire forest from being destroyed.

Dense and thriving mangroves being crushed and buried by machines, while camels graze their last meals in this field.

Machines were used to create bunds to stop the tidal water from coming in, and hence killing the mangroves and several other species that thrive on this ecosystem.

Bhachu kaka, Adambhai’s father, at his place in between the mangrove forest, which lies barren now.

Adambhai is part of the Camel Breeders Association of Kutch (Kutch Unth Ucherak Maldhari Sangathan- KUUMS), of 380 pastoral members of Kutch district of Gujarat. KUUMS has hired a lawyer firm in Delhi to get the ‘Stay Order’ from NGT, which they successfully got, but only for now. They had made some profits in the last six months selling camel milk to AMUL to make chocolates; this helped them pay the initial fees for the case.

Camel milk has been recognised by FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) and AMUL for its immense therapeutic properties in degenerative diseases like Autism, TB, Diabetes even some types of cancers; however, with the destruction of mangroves in Gujarat there are barely about 3000 of these unique camels called Kharai, that live in the mangroves, left in the country. The government of India has declared them ‘highly threatened’ and has launched a massive conservation program to increase the Kharai numbers. However, along with the thousands of species that live in the mangroves the Kharai too will perish without them.

LEFT: What is left of what was a thriving and lush mangrove forest. The killed trees have been buried under the same ground where they were growing once. RIGHT: Portion of the forest that has been cut off from the water and will soon die.

Several concerned groups, organisations, environmentalists and citizens came together from around Kutch on 24th February 2018 at the site of destruction to protest against the salt making industries and in support of the communities that are going to suffer due to the loss of the mangroves. Coverage of the protest in the media ensured a temporary halt in the destruction. However, it soon began again and was only stopped after the NGT Stay Order weeks later.

The only vehicular access was blocked using hard silt by the contractors working for the salt making industries to stop the protesters from reaching the site of destruction. The blockage was cleared by the protesters using their hands.

Protesters raising slogans against the destruction of mangroves and showing dead mangrove trees that must have taken years to grow.

LEFT: The women of one of the communities that are affected protesting the killing of mangroves by the salt industries. RIGHT: Community members showing the height of trees that have been cut off.

KUUMS needs your support to fight the case and punish the perpetrators. They are getting contributions from their own members of about one lakh rupees but will require another two lakhs to advocate against the destruction, fight the case and begin reviving the destroyed mangroves. The collected funds will be used to support KUUMS with legal fee, to support travel of community representatives from Kutch to Delhi towards legal hearings & any further protests if required, and for mangrove restoration activities. The utilisation of the funds will be transparent, and regular updates will be given to the donors. Salt making industries are a powerful group of people, politically and economically. It is a fight between David and Goliath and it is not going to be easy for KUUMS. Any support, economical, legal or otherwise, will be much appreciated.

Our partner organisation, Sahjeevan, with one of its specialisations being bio-diversity conservation has agreed to partner with us and will specifically help us with the rejuvenation of the destroyed mangrove fields using the foreign currency donations that we receive through this fundraiser.

A lone mangrove sapling futilely tries to grow against all odds out of the cleared and flattened ground which was once a dense mangrove forest.

A healthy mangrove ecosystem, becoming rarer and rarer with the passing day.

Note: A pdf version of the story above, with high resolution images, can be downloaded from the following link: KutchMangrovePhotoStory.pdf.

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28th December 2018

Dear friends of mangroves,

We are sharing another good news with this update. Now that the monsoon season is over, we are moving ahead with acquisition of seeds and the rejuvenation work is going to start soon. We will share some pictures soon.

Meanwhile, we are sharing a brief timeline of the activities that happened since the beginning of the year.

Thank you for all your support.

--KUUMS

Dear friends of mangroves,

We are sharing another good news with this update. Now that the monsoon season is over, we are moving ahead with acquisition of seeds and the rejuvenation work is going to start soon. We will share some pictures soon.

Meanwhile, we are sharing a brief timeline of the activities that happened since the beginning of the year.

Thank you for all your support.

--KUUMS

26th October 2018

Dear friends of mangroves,

We are sharing another good news with this update. Now that the monsoon season is over, we are moving ahead with acquisition of seeds and the rejuvenation work is going to start soon. We will share some pictures soon.

Meanwhile, we are sharing a brief timeline of the activities that happened since the beginning of the year.

Thank you for all your support.

--KUUMS

Dear friends of mangroves,

We are sharing another good news with this update. Now that the monsoon season is over, we are moving ahead with acquisition of seeds and the rejuvenation work is going to start soon. We will share some pictures soon.

Meanwhile, we are sharing a brief timeline of the activities that happened since the beginning of the year.

Thank you for all your support.

--KUUMS

12th July 2018

Dear friends of mangroves,

With this update, we would like to share a long pending good news. Last month the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) and the District Magistrate (DM) to remove all the obstructions in the creeks, and to allow natural flow of water in mangrove fields.

These obstructions were put in by the contractors of the salt making industries to choke the trees so that it would be easier for them to clear land for salt pans.

The creeks have now been opened by the machines that were earlier used to clear the mangroves. Water has come back to natural levels at many places but some areas are still blocked. It is difficult to reach these areas at the moment, especially due to the monsoon season. We are now monitoring the rejuvenation process with the technical help of our partner organisation Sahjeevan. However, the case with NGT is still being pursued so that the perpetrators are served due penalties.

We thank you on behalf of all the camel-herders for the strong moral support that you provided. Even though we have not been able to achieve the funds that we had targeted initially, the amount that we did collect is going to be of great use to us.

Also, we have decided to close down this fundraiser page in some time, may be after a few more updates here. We will continue providing further updates through the KUUMS website (http://kuums.org/), and will also try to form a support group for the camel-herders and the mangroves.

Till the next update.

--KUUMS

Dear friends of mangroves,

With this update, we would like to share a long pending good news. Last month the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) and the District Magistrate (DM) to remove all the obstructions in the creeks, and to allow natural flow of water in mangrove fields.

These obstructions were put in by the contractors of the salt making industries to choke the trees so that it would be easier for them to clear land for salt pans.

The creeks have now been opened by the machines that were earlier used to clear the mangroves. Water has come back to natural levels at many places but some areas are still blocked. It is difficult to reach these areas at the moment, especially due to the monsoon season. We are now monitoring the rejuvenation process with the technical help of our partner organisation Sahjeevan. However, the case with NGT is still being pursued so that the perpetrators are served due penalties.

We thank you on behalf of all the camel-herders for the strong moral support that you provided. Even though we have not been able to achieve the funds that we had targeted initially, the amount that we did collect is going to be of great use to us.

Also, we have decided to close down this fundraiser page in some time, may be after a few more updates here. We will continue providing further updates through the KUUMS website (http://kuums.org/), and will also try to form a support group for the camel-herders and the mangroves.